Article excerpt

A COURT heard of the terrifying daily routine faced by Don Tidey as IRAjailbreaker Brendan Bik McFarlane finally went on trial for his kidnapyesterday.

A trainee garda and a soldier were killed when Mr Tidey was rescued by thesecurity forces.

The supermarket executive was kidnapped in November 1983 by a gang dressed inGarda uniforms. He was forced to lie down in the back of a car in considerablepain, and his schoolgirl daughter was pulled from his car and pressed against afence by a gang member wielding a machinegun.

He was then hit a number of times, hooded and told his life was in his ownhands.

Prosecutor Edward Comyn told the Special Criminal Court that Mr Tidey was takendeep into woodlands in Co. Leitrim and put through a daily regime for the next23 days of his ordeal.

The forest hideout had been prepared in advance. Mr Tideys legs were chained,his hands were manacled and his hood was removed and replaced with a blindfold.

He was told that if a rescue party arrived he was to walk between two others asthey escaped. But the court heard that when security forces did find them, thesituation became a blur of activity with a lot of firing. Mr Comyn said: Abattle started to rage around him. He heard a violent explosion and he threwhimself to the ground.

Mr Tideywho was wearing camouflage and wasnt easily distinguished from the kidnappersmanaged to get into a slight depression in the ground. Then he saw a soldierwith an automatic weapon trained on him standing over him and his rescue wasmoments away.

The court heard that Mr Tideys ordeal began when he left his home at Woodtownnear Ballyboden in south Dublin at 7.50am on the morning of November 24, 1983,with his daughter Susan whom he was dropping at school. His son Alastair wasdriving his own car behind him.

What looked like a Garda car with flashing lights pulled across the exit of thelaneway and two men dressed as gardai waved him down. One of them pulled a gunon the company executive and forced him into the fake Garda car

He was forced into the rear with considerable pain and discomfort and he wasmade to lie down, the court heard. His daughter Susan was pulled from his carand pressed against a fence by a man with a machinegun. Three other menappeared on the scene and one of them fired two bursts.

The car containing Mr Tidey then sped off. Later, he was taken out of the carand put in a van and he received several blows and a hood was put over hishead. …

The Narration and Visualization of Rape and the Inadvertent Subversion of the Anti-War Message in Brian De Palma's Redacted and Casualties of WarSokolowska-Paryz, Marzena.
WLA ; War, Literature and the Arts, Vol. 24, 2012